Surgery for a patient can be painful and traumatic, particularly in the affected area of the patient's body. To accommodate insertion of surgical instruments, sufficient dissection and/or retraction of muscle tissue, nerve tissue, vasculature tissue and other tissue must be made to allow passage of the instruments therethrough.
Surgical instruments can include sharp elements which can cut or cause trauma to tissue in the approach to and adjacent the surgical site. Tissue dissection and retraction may be increased to avoid contact between the instrument and the tissue in the approach to the surgical site. Additionally, delicate anatomical structures may be present at or near the surgical site. Additional instruments or other precautions may be required to protect such tissue, and these additional measures may limit or inhibit access to the surgical site.
For spinal surgical procedures, positioning surgical instruments in a spinal disc space can require difficult maneuvering and gesturing of surgical instruments. Sufficient time, effort and care during the surgery must be devoted to the positioning and use such instruments to obtain the desired result while minimizing the trauma and effect to tissue or other anatomical structures in the approach to and adjacent the disc space. There remains a need for instruments and methods that can be employed for preparing a surgical site that minimize tissue dissection and retraction, and also exposure of the anatomical structures at the surgical site to sharp elements of the instruments.